Ted Cruz's father: It's 'appalling' that Houston has a gay mayor

Updated 8:54 am, Monday, September 28, 2015

Video: Raw audio: Rafael Cruz slams Houston Mayor Annise Parker

In a video posted by a local political action committee, Texas Sen. Cruz's father condemns Houston for having an openly gay mayor.

The footage was posted last week by a group called "NO on Houston Prop 1 PAC," an organization in opposition of the city's controversial HERO ordinance, which among other things would extend protections to transgender people.

Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Sen. and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, said in a video, "“I’ll tell you what, it is appalling that in a city like Houston, right in the middle of the Bible Belt, we have a homosexual mayor.”

Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Sen. and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, said in a video, "“I’ll tell you what, it is appalling that in a city like Houston, ... more

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

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Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has a history of making controversial remarks. In 2013, a spokesman for Ted Cruz told Mother Jones that "Pastor Cruz does not speak for the senator." Click through the slideshow to read Rafael Cruz's most contentious statements. less

Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has a history of making controversial remarks. In 2013, a spokesman for Ted Cruz told Mother Jones that "Pastor Cruz does not speak for the senator." ... more

Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

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On the black communityRev. Rafael Cruz encouraged members of the Western Williamson County Republican Club on Aug. 21 to purchase "Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed" authored by Jason Riley, an African-American member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

"Jason Riley said in an interview, Did you know before we had minimum wage laws black unemployment and white unemployment were the same? If we increase the minimum wage, black unemployment will skyrocket. See, he understands it, but the average black does not."

On the black community
Rev. Rafael Cruz encouraged members of the Western Williamson County Republican Club on Aug. 21 to purchase "Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed" ... more

Photo: Charlie Neibergall, File Photo

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On the black communityRafael Cruz recited a conversation he said he had with an African-American
pastor in Bakersfield, Calif.

"I said, as a matter of fact, 'Did
you know that Civil Rights legislation was passed by Republicans? It was
passed by a Republican Senate under the threat of a filibuster by the
Democrats,'" Cruz said. "'Oh, I didn't know that.' And then I said, 'Did
you know that every member of the Ku Klux Klan were Democrats from the
South?' 'Oh I didn't know that.' You know, they need to be educated."

On the black community
Rafael Cruz recited a conversation he said he had with an African-American pastor in Bakersfield, Calif.

"I said, as a matter of fact, 'Did you know that Civil Rights legislation was ... more

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

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On Obama and MarxismAt a Sept. 12, 2012 Tea Party meeting in North Texas, the Rev. Rafael Cruz stirred up theories — long disproved — that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

“We have our work cut out for us,” he said. “We need to send Barack Obama back to Chicago. I’d like to send him back to Kenya, back to Indonesia.” He went on to say, “We have to unmask this man. This is a man that seeks to destroy all concept of God. And I will tell you what, this is classical Marxist philosophy. Karl Marx very clearly said Marxism requires that we destroy God because government must become God.”

On "death panels"In a March 3, 2014, speech to a Tea Party group in Nevada County, the Rev. Rafael Cruz warned about “death panels” under Obamacare.

“You remember how maligned Sarah Palin was, when she mentioned about the death panels? Well let me tell you, the death panels are in Obamacare. It’s a panel of 16 bureaucrats that will decide whether you get a procedure or not. Now let me tell you the most ominous thing about those death panels — they’re called IPABs, I-P-A-B, IPABs — is that in 1917, there’s a very small window in which Congress can intervene with these panels, a window of about a month. After that, this panel will be independent of Congress, independent of the president — it will become a dictatorship within a dictatorship. So that’s what socialized medicine is.”

On Obama and abortionAt one point, Cruz talked about Obama's record on abortion to a group of Tea Party members in Hood County.

“Do you realize that the very first bill President Obama signed into law was to legalize third-trimester abortions? He did that in his first 24 hours in office. Something that President Bush had made illegal. That was his first act. Three times, while he was a senator – I just heard that on Hannity as I was coming over here – three times, when he was a Senator in Illinois, there was a bill to decree that a baby that is born alive is a human being. And he refused to sign such a bill. He voted against it. So, he probably doesn’t have any problem with what this butcher in Philadelphia has been doing.”

On Obama's 2013 State of the Union addressAt the July 5, 2013
FreedomWorks’ Free the People Event in Salt Lake City, Cruz bashed President Barack Obama's State of the Union comments concerning climate change.

"I think the most ominous words I’ve ever heard was in the last two state of the union addresses, when our president said: 'If Congress does not act, I will act unilaterally.' Not much different than that old, bearded friend that I left behind in Cuba -- governing by decree, by executive order, just like a dictator, like Fidel Castro."

On Obama's 2013 State of the Union address
At the July 5, 2013 FreedomWorks’ Free the People Event in Salt Lake City, Cruz bashed President Barack Obama's State of the Union comments concerning climate ... more

Photo: David J. Phillip, File Photo

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On the U.S. mediaDuring an Oct. 17, 2013 interview with conservative pundit Glenn beck, Cruz criticized the U.S. media as an instrument of a "liberal" federal government.

"However, you don’t hear a peep out of CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC — I call them ‘the Ministry of Misinformation.’ Just like there was a Ministry of Misinformation in Russia and in all the communist countries, we have one in this country – and it is the media. The media is manipulated by Obama, and they don’t want to cover this trial, because it will go against their agenda of promoting abortion on demand. And it is one of the most horrific crimes that has occurred in this nation.”

On energy supplyAt an Oct. 19, 2012,
gathering of Grassroots America We the People in Tyler, the Rev. Cruz
said, “We are buying 40 percent of our oil from our enemies…Our enemies
control the energy that we use or do not use.”

On homosexualityAt the Aug. 10, 2013, Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Cruz called same-sex marriage a government plot to destroy the family construct and establish socialism.

“And listen, we need to understand the foundations of what is being done. When you hear this attack on religion, it’s not really an attack on religion. The fundamental basis is this: Socialism requires that government becomes your God. That’s why they have to destroy the concept of God. They have to destroy all loyalties except loyalty to the government. That’s what is behind homosexual marriage. It’s really more about the destruction of the traditional family than about exalting homosexuality, because you need to destroy also loyalty to the family.”

On gun controlDuring a July 23, 2014, segment on the radio show "Faith and Liberty," the Rev. Rafael Cruz responded to a question about whether President Barack Obama wanted to confiscate firearms. He repeated the same points during a dinner in Foxboro, Mass.

“Now, again, look at history. Remember the lessons of history — if we don’t learn from history, we’re bound to repeat it. Stalin took away the guns. Then he killed 20 million people. Mao took away the guns, then he killed 50 million people. And the same thing with Pol Pot, and with Vario. As a matter of fact, even in my country, in Cuba — you read the history of Cuba. In Cuba there there were two wars of independence, against Spain. The first war lasted 10 years. At the end of that 10-year war, what do you think the Spanish government did? Confiscated all the guns. So when they went to the second war, in 1895, they had no guns. So they used machetes. They had machetes. And they would go with machetes, running as fast as they could, and horses, cutting heads off, and confiscating the muskets from the Spaniards.

On gun control
During a July 23, 2014, segment on the radio show "Faith and Liberty," the Rev. Rafael Cruz responded to a question about whether President Barack Obama wanted to confiscate firearms. He repeated ... more

Photo: Pat Sullivan, File Photo

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On Obama and Fidel CastroDuring the same July 23, 2014 radio segment on the show "Faith and Liberty," Cruz said President Barack Obama and Fidel Castro both “operate by the same rulebook.” He repeated the same points at a Tea Party meeting on Sept. 12, 2012.

“If you’ve heard him recite the Pledge, he skips ‘under God.’ He never says those two words: ‘under God.’ And then he says: ‘Oh, it was an oversight.’ It continues, though, over and over again. So I’ll tell you, we have to unmask this man. This is a man who seeks to destroy all concept of God. And I’ll tell you why: This is classical Marxist philosophy. Karl Marx very clearly said it: ‘Marxism requires that we destroy God, because government must become God. And the only way for government to become God is to destroy the concept of God.’”

On Obama and Fidel Castro
During the same July 23, 2014 radio segment on the show "Faith and Liberty," Cruz said President Barack Obama and Fidel Castro both “operate by the same rulebook.” He repeated the ... more

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On what the church should doThe Rev. Rafael Cruz told the Road to Majority Summit in June 2014 to stop electing "the village idiot," referring to President Barack Obama, and encouraged attendees to assert right-wing, religious control “over the seven forces that shape and control our culture: (1) Business; (2) Government; (3) Media; (4) Arts and Entertainment; (5) Education; (6) Family; and (7) Religion ... Indeed we should have an influence upon arts and entertainment, upon media, upon sports, upon education, upon business, upon government. As a matter of fact, the Word of God tells us, 'he who justifies the wicked or he that condemns the just, both of them are an abomination to the Lord.”

On what the church should do
The Rev. Rafael Cruz told the Road to Majority Summit in June 2014 to stop electing "the village idiot," referring to President Barack Obama, and encouraged attendees to assert ... more

Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News

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On the Bible and votingCruz told attendees at the
Family Research Council’s annual Watchmen on the Wall briefing on May
22, 2014 that the Bible has voting advice for Christians.

“Let me
shock you a little bit. Did you know that the Bible tells you exactly
who to vote for?” Cruz cited Exodus 18:21: “Moreover you shall select
from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating
covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, ruler
of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. If the righteous do
not run for office, if the righteous are not even voting. . . that
leaves the wicked electing the wicked. We get what we deserve.”

On 'ex-gay' therapyCruz told panelists at the
National Religious Broadcasters convention on Feb. 25, 2014 that he
believes "sexual orientation is a choice, it’s not a civil right."

“The
left is trying to redefine the issue as a civil right, not as a
personal choice. They have gone to the extent to even try to make it
illegal for counselors to administer to these people that have certain
sexual tendencies to try to work with them from the Christian, biblical
standpoint.”

Cruz
falsely claimed San Antonio's anti-discrimination ordinance — recently
updated to include protections on sexual orientation and gender identity
— would allow city officials to levy fines to preachers who recite from
the Bible.

“All we have to do is turn on the news
and every day we see more and more encroachment upon pastors from this
administration. All they have to do is be aware of what’s happening
around us and to be aware, for example, that in the city of San Antonio,
if a pastor speaks on Romans 1, he could be even fined $500 a day until
he retracts what he said.”

On Obama and povertyCruz told The Daily Caller in May that President Barack Obama wants to keep poor people in poverty to "buy their votes." He elaborated on those points during a speech at a church in Athens, Texas.

“So God doesn’t exist, so you can’t rely on God, so what do you do? You rely on government. And so you create now a class of dependency. And a class of dependency, instead of — remember what we talked about a minute ago, about living a life of contribution? Now it is the opposite. It’s living the life of taking, of becoming parasites, of a so-called benevolent god-with-a-little-g. And the government becomes your God. And of course, when this dependent class becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, it inexorably leads to socialism. And that means you have a tyrannical government controlling every aspect of your life. And we’re seeing that occurring before our very eyes, more and more and more every day.”

On Obama and poverty
Cruz told The Daily Caller in May that President Barack Obama wants to keep poor people in poverty to "buy their votes." He elaborated on those points during a speech at a church in Athens, ... more

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News

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On evolutionPastor Rafael Cruz, father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, denounced evolution as
a Marxist falsehood at a Texas prayer breakfast in June 2013.

“You gotta understand, it’s just like evolution. You know, most Americans have their head in the sand about evolution. I met so many Christians who tell me: ‘Well, evolution is a scientific fact.’ Baloney! I am a scientist — there’s nothing scientific about evolution. But you know something, Karl Marx said it: ‘I can use the teachings of Darwin to promote communism.’ Why? Because communism — or call it socialism, if you think communism is too hard a word — necessitates for government to be your god. And for government to be your God, they need to destroy the concept of God. That’s why communism and evolution go hand in hand. Evolution is one of the strongest tools of Marxism. Because if they can convince you that you came from a monkey, it’s much easier to convince you that God does not exist.”

Rafael Cruz, 76, is a Cuban immigrant and evangelical preacher who in recent months has hit the campaign trail in support of his son, according to the Wall Street Journal, which called the elder Cruz, "a practiced speaker who brings evangelicals to their feet and a powerful weapon for his son in one of the fiercest battles within the Republican nomination contest: the fight for voters on the religious right."

In Houston, the HERO ordinance has become a rallying cry for much of the religious right, which alleges it is being marginalized by policy that forces Christians to subvert their religion by honoring lifestyles they do not condone.

At a September 10 luncheon in Houston, the elder Cruz told supporters that religious conservatives made up a majority of voters but simply failed to turn out to polls.

"If the righteous are not running for office, if the righteous are not even voting, then what is left? The wicked electing the wicked. And we get what we deserve," he said in the video. "I'll tell you what, it is appalling that in a city like Houston, right in the middle of the Bible Belt, we have a homosexual mayor."

"Why? Because too many people have been sitting in their pews or sitting at home with this business about separation of Church and state. Did you know that separation of church and state is not in the Constitution or in the declaration? It's a lie."

"The main thrust of Rafael's message is that Christian, don't vote. That is what he finds 'appalling," said Cruz for President campaign national spokesman Rick Tyler. "The Houston mayor is the same mayor who attempted to subpoena the sermons and sermon notes of Houston pastors who preached about biblical marriage."

The elder Cruz is a former Cuban revolutionary who once sought to join leader Fidel Castro's militia, but instead fled the reign of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, immigrated to the United States and reformed his left-leaning attitude, The Guardian reports.

Tyler said that Cruz was 18 years old when he fought for Castro, and "he did not know that Castro was a leftist and was profoundly disillusioned when it became known after Castro took power."

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